The rumors of Google buying a stake in SpaceX started percolating a few days ago, and now it's official. Google and Fidelity have invested a total of $1 billion in the private space firm, which gives them about 10% share. SpaceX says the new funding will go toward the development of reusable rocket technology and satellite manufacturing.

Quite a while has past since there's been any Android-related news for Galaxy on Fire fans. The developers of the series that showed many gamers just how beautiful space could be and let them explore it on their mobile devices surprised a few folks when they said that the next entry would deviate from their action-oriented roots and transition into a strategy-focused MMO. Excuse me, make that a free-to-play strategy-focused MMO.

Let me tell you about my life a little over a decade ago. I bought a PC strategy game called Hegemonia (AKA Haegemonia) on a whim in 2002. I played the campaign mode of that game no fewer than four times. It was fantastic. Now it's on Android, and this may be the last you hear from me until early next year. That is, of course, assuming it's still fun to play on Android.

Science fiction buffs are getting very excited about Interstellar, the upcoming movie from director Christopher Nolan (of The Dark Knight and Inception fame). To drum up a little more excitement, Paramount has created and published a mobile game tie-in. Interstellar is a free download for Android 4.0, and unlike a lot of licensed games, it has no in-app purchases... so you can save your money for Coke and popcorn. Unlike even more licensed games, it's got some unique ideas and a solid presentation.

There's a minor movie trope where an inexperienced character sits down at the controls of a complex vehicle, confident in his or her ability to handle the situation. Hilarity, as decreed by the ancient comedic formulas, ensues. ALONE... will make you fell like that poor sap, as a light-speed space capsule blasts across the screen maneuvered by some of the tightest, twitchiest touch controls I've ever seen. ALONE is a $2.47 with no in-app purchases.

Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a space puzzler, a space arcade game, a space RPG...

There have been rumblings recently that, adding to its other (perhaps more far-flung) efforts to improve Internet access around the world, Google would eventually deploy its own fleet of satellites. Today, those rumblings got a little bit closer to reality as Google announced its agreement to acquire satellite imaging company Skybox for $500 million in cash.

Skybox's journey so far, according to the announcement on its own blog, has been about revolutionizing "access to information about the changes happening across the surface of the Earth." Having already deployed the world's smallest high-resolution imaging satellite, the company says it's already made "great strides."

Recently, Google's ambitious and public-spirited ventures are sounding less like the careful expansions of an international megacorp and more like the pet projects of Dr. Benton Quest. Self-driving cars, medical contact lenses, industrial robots - seriously, we're just waiting on a Walking Eye and Steve Ballmer in a villain costume at this point. The latest report from the Wall Street Journal (which tends to be spot-on when it comes to Google's plans) says the company is preparing a fleet of low-orbit satellites that will deliver Internet access.

So we all know that Project Tango is cool – programing a mobile device to be aware of its own surroundings just as people are can be potentially beneficial in many ways. NASA has clearly seen something in the in Tango as well, as the company has been working with Google since last year to utilize the project with its own robotic platform called SPHERES. In a nutshell, it wants to incorporate Tango into autonomous, space-aware robots that will take some of the load off of astronauts on the International Space Station by doing some of the work for them.

It has been more than 30 years since the late, great Carl Sagan took to the airwaves to talk about how our future as a species depends powerfully on our understanding of the cosmos, which we float in like a mote of dust. The original Cosmos debuted in 1980 and inspired a generation of scientists and science nerds alike. Now the series is back with Neil deGrasse Tyson at the helm, and Fox has released a new companion app for Android that can help you explore the majesty and unbelievable scale of the cosmos while watching the show.